The Unending Covid-19 variants: Increased Public Health Spending a Must for Zimbabwe: January 2022 Access to Public Health Monitoring Report

Zimbabwe Democracy Institute’s January 2022 edition of the access to public health monitoring report provides insights on how the ever increasing covid-19 variants require the government to increase the health budget so as to allow for adequate interventions to counter the pandemic. Read on to get informed.

Introduction

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe in March 2019 exposed the country’s healthcare system as the health sector became the major talking point insofar as the pandemic’s response was/is concerned. The continued discovery of new Covid-19 variants is a clear indication that the pandemic is far from over. As such, the health sector calls for an increased public health spending as a tool of fighting the pandemic.

Health Sector Financing

The Covid-19 in Zimbabwe came at a time when the country’s healthcare system was faced with a number of challenges most of which were linked to funding. The attainment of the universal health coverage in Zimbabwe therefore remains constrained by the inadequate health sector funding.

Health Sector Human Resources

Zimbabwe’s health sector has, for a long time, borne the brunt of industrial actions by the health personnel over poor working conditions among other grievances. In 2019, the country was faced with one of the elongated strike by doctors and nurses as they demanded better working conditions and this situation further crippled the health sector.The impasse between the government and the health sector workers still exists and has generated an incapacitated and demotivated and workforce that hinders the delivery of quality healthcare across public health institutions in the country.

Access the full report here (320KB PDF)

Source: Zimbabwe Democracy Institute